Tigerville, SC – Following North Greenville’s first major scrimmage of the year Friday, August 19, Crusader head coach Jamey Chadwell noted that his team’s senior leadership and an air of enthusiasm were the highlights of the second week of fall practice.

“The team’s attitude has been very good after the first week, and what I really like is that our older guys are providing good leadership,” the third year mentor said. “We are a little behind because we only had a few days of two a days before school started, whereas other teams are getting four to five. It’s not very hard to keep this team enthused, and we are much farther ahead than we were last year.”NGU opens its 2011 campaign Saturday, Sept. 3 playing at Newberry College. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. The Crusaders open their home schedule on Saturday, Sept. 17, hosting Tusculum (TN) College at 7:00 p.m. That contest will be telecast live on Channel 40 from Asheville, NC.“Even though we are executing better and are certainly much more mature, it doesn’t mean we’re going to be better because we’re playing better teams this season,” Chadwell added. “Our goals this year are to hold onto the ball and tackle the ball better.”“At this level, you walk a fine line because of the numbers,” he added. “We want to make sure we get the work in and hit, but we don’t want to have a lot of injuries either. You have to hit enough so that the players know how to tackle, but you don’t want to get a lot of people hurt either. No one at this level can afford to have certain players hurt. We still have a little less than two weeks before we play, and I’m pleased with our conditioning and exertion in practice.”“Our expectations are higher this year as well,” Chadwell summarized. “Our guys understand we’re playing in a tougher league; we will see it every week. It’s not play Mars Hill and Lenoir Rhyne, and then have a weaker team in between. The South Atlantic Conference will be tough every week, so we’ve got to be ready.”